April Newsletter

April Newsletter

SFERS v. CCSF (pre-1996) On March 1, 2018 our amicus brief was officially filed by the Court of Appeal. Subject to further order of the court, any answer to our amicus brief shall be served and filed no later than 21 days from the date of the filling. We hope a court date will soon follow perhaps as soon as April or May.
HEALTH SERVICE SYSTEM
POB met with Abbie Yant, ED of HSS. She was very open and collaborative. She brings both private and Public Health Service experience. She was EMS Administrator for the CCSF. We shared history and agreed to work together in the future. It was a very positive meeting.

SFERS RETIREMENT BOARD
In the first eight months of fiscal year 2017-18 SFERS portfolio has gained 9.20%. Once again showing us SFERS is one of the better performing pension plans.
Divestment of Fossil Fuels: By April 2018 SFERS staff will submit to the trustees proposed definitions and benchmarks for identifying the riskiest dirtiest fossil fuel securities and by October 2018 a recommendation on phased divestment of the identified fossil fuel securities.

FINAL THOUGHTS
We retirees might as well face it; we’re going to have a regular dosage of challenges coming our way, whether by local politicians or from the state or federal government. These are the same people that promise you anything to get elected and when things start getting sticky they change their tune and pick on the most vulnerable, the retirees.

Case in point, Governor Jerry Brown starting his final year of his second term and no longer needing the support of labor for reelection is using that freedom to take on the issue of pensions. In a recent court case Governor Brown’s office took the unprecedented step and submitting a brief in support of a case that would strike out the California rule, a precedent dating back to the 1950’s that holds public agencies cannot reduce pension promises without offering new incentives to offset the loss of retirement income.

On the issue of SFERS divesting of fossil fuels one must hope the trustees use their due diligence. This is a big undertaking, something that will take time. It’s not like switching channels on a TV.

There are contracts that must be honored among other things and if violating any of these, the result will be fines and more money that we hadn’t foreseen. So, anticipate a slow and methodically procedure that hopefully will not hurt the fund.

We still are accepting donations which are very much appreciated. PROTECT OUR BENEFITS, INC. P.O. BOX 210250, SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 94121-0250. Stay informed at protectorbenefits.org or Facebook.
Remember: United we stand, divided we fall”.